Capcom has confirmed that the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake won’t be cutting out any locations from the original game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to still be a very different experience from the 2005 horror shooter. A number of significant story and gameplay changes have been confirmed, including a new knife parry mechanic and the removal of QTEs– and both of these, interestingly enough, owe their existence to the infamous Krauser boss fight.
The boss fight, late on in the original game, saw protagonist Leon going up against Krauser in a long, intense knife fight that was built entirely around QTEs. Speaking to Game Informer, the remake’s directors, Yasuhiro Ampo and Kazunori Kadoi, explained that the idea for the knife parry mechanic when the development team was thinking of how to design the Krauser fight in the remake without the use of QTEs. Once that happened, the development team decided to implement the new mechanic throughout the game.
“Once the parry mechanic had been implemented, from that point when I played the original, I found myself wanting to parry in the original as well,” Kadoi said. “That was when I felt things became really interesting.”
While there will be some who’ll be lamenting the lack of QTEs in the Resident Evil 4 remake, given how prominently they were featured in the original game, there’s little doubt that a boss fight built entirely around quick-time events wouldn’t be received very well by modern audiences. On the other hand, one that revolves around a parrying mechanic is likely to be significantly more appealing, so we’re curious to see how it’s implemented in the game.
Resident Evil 4 launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PC on March 24.
